Since the Brexit referendum in 2016, British politics has been in disarray, with the US Capitol stormed by protesters and President Donald Trump attacking the supposed ‘deep-state’ controlling American politics. However, the decline in public trust in government is not self-evident. People have never been particularly fond of politics, and we have simply been witnessing ‘trendless fluctuations’ in trust – where we happen to notice declines more than rises or stability. Researchers have analyzed data from over 5 million respondents across 143 countries from 1958 to 2019, finding that since 1990, the trust in parliament and government has indeed been declining by an average of 8.4 and 7.3 percentage points respectively in democratic countries worldwide. But this does not mean the decline in political trust is due to a growing aversion to general social institutions, but rather that the political practice itself has lost its appeal to citizens. However, this global trend masks a more complex reality. Some small countries, such as Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, are seeing rising trust levels, which may point the way for others.